A government proposal to extend maternity benefits in the private sector from 12 weeks of paid leave to 26 weeks is sending India Inc on an overdrive.MUMBAI: A government proposal to extend maternity benefits in the private sector from 12 weeks of paid leave to 26 weeks is sending India Inc on an overdrive, with companies keen to substantially improve such benefits in order to improve gender diversity.

A dozen chief executive officers and human resource (HR) department heads ETspoke to, were not only keen on the government proposal but also expressed intent to do more to create flexible work policies to enable women employees to transition smoothly between maternity and work.

"It doesn't stop at maternity leave," said Vivek Gambhir, managing director, Godrej Consumer Products, which already offers six months paid maternity leave to employees. "You need to continue to make flexible options available after this period to help the transition to the workplace."

On Monday, Women & Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi announced that the labour ministry has agreed to introduce new rules to increase maternity leave in the private sector to sixand-a-half months.

Though it's early days yet — the labour ministry will need to amend the Maternity Benefits Act, 1961, to enforce the changes — companies said they would do whatever it takes to implement it. Forty-two countries in the world offer maternity leave of over 18 weeks, with the International Labour Organisation recommending a standard maternity leave of 14 weeks or more.

Maternity and childbirth leads to over 48% of women under the age of 30 to drop off the workforce, causing a severe dent to India Inc's efforts to step up gender diversity, especially at middle management and higher levels.

"The government is making the right signal, but companies need to have a more flexible approach, like work from home, etc, and that has to be based on a case by case basis," said Santrupt B Misra, director, group human resources, Aditya Birla Group. Misra is also the chief executive officer of the group's carbon black business.

In addition to maternity leave, companies are providing work from home options, flexi-timing, creche facilities, sabbatical and break from work, among others, to attract and retain high-potential women.

This year, even as the women and child development ministry was urging the labour ministry to improve benefits, a handful of companies introduced maternity benefits well above current and proposed statutory requirements.

Flipkart rolled out a maternity benefits package including six months paid leave plus four months of flexible working option with pay. Accenture India extended its maternity leave benefits to five months of paid leave. Intel extended maternity leave benefits to 150 days from 84 days. InMobi launched a maternity policy of four months of paid leave.

READY TO CHANGE POLICIES

Others are ready to change maternity policies rapidly to meet the new rules. "For us it will not be a challenge...anyways women are taking 6-8 months leave and we offer them the flexibility," said Rajkamal Vempatti, head-HR at Axis Bank. "This puts onus on companies to do more beyond maternity leave, like greater sabbatical, more flexibility to take care of family needs in critical juncture, creche facilities, etc," she added. Axis Bank offers 120 days, or 4 months, of maternity leave and flexible work option, including sabbatical after that. "The idea has merit. We will take a call when the time comes," said Future Group CEO Kishore Biyani.

However, some gender diversity experts feel that the proposed maternity benefit rules may discourage companies from employing women in billable, client-facing roles, unless clients and partners also value gender diversity.

"Business leaders and project managers will tend to step back from hiring women when extension of maternity leave is legalised as they see this as an additional cost," said Gayathri Ramamurthy, lead-diversity and inclusion at Capgemini India. "Our responsibility to educate businesses on the intangible impact of women being in the team and engage with clients to enable the same cannot be trivialised."

"I am not sure how many small and medium enterprises from the unorganised sector, which actually employ over 80% of the working women in India, will view this," said Dr Saundarya Rajesh, founder-president, AVTAR Career Creators & FLEXI Careers India. "To them, this could actually be a deterrent to employing women."

ET VIEW: Companies will Survive Turning Family-Friendly

Some warn that extending maternity leave to six months could work against women: women won't get client-facing or revenue-responsible roles or be hired at all. This is but the latest instance of corporates using benefits legislation to legitimise gender discrimination. Companies have adapted to more demanding consumers, adverse business environments and stricter labour laws; why baulk at more family-friendly HR policies? The "we'll be forced to hire less women" line was trotted out when the sexual harassment law came into force, and when transport was mandated for night-shift workers as well, and is as weaselly now as it was then.